


I'll Be Home Before Morning

by seraphenanox



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 00:49:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6262939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seraphenanox/pseuds/seraphenanox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve learns how it feels when he's the one left at home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Be Home Before Morning

**Author's Note:**

> Just a scene that I couldn't let go of. Hope you enjoy.

 

“I can go with you.” Steve rolled over to look at his love and his lover.  Warm brown eyes twinkled in in the faint light. 

“It’s a meet and greet and press conference.” Tony Stark finished the last button on his shirt and fitted the tie under the collar.  “You’d be bored senseless.”

Steve grabbed the brilliant red tie felt the geometric designs embroidered a just a shade darker and pulled the brunette down for a kiss.

He meant it to be fast and quick.  But Tony never could resist and twisted to slide a knee on the bed leaning down and changing it to dirty and hard.

When they came up for air Tony’s forehead pressed against his and both them panted.

“Shit.  I wish…“ Even Tony’s voice so suave so smooth was wrecked.

It thrilled him every time.  He did that.  And he watched the faint flush of pink against the olive tinted skin.  Heat and ache Steve just smiled letting it fill his expression.  The hunger he felt when they could be alone in the quiet moments.

“Oh come on Steve.” Tony whined talking a step back.  He noticed the way the other man had to adjust his pants and how he still left his shirt untucked.  Steve’s grin broaden and more feral.

“Are you staying the night?”  Distance, they needed that.  Steve left more often than Tony did, and maybe this was just a little pay back for all the times that Tony had been the one to tease and torment.

“It’s Pittsburgh not the ends of the earth.”  Nimble fingers finished tying the knot and he grabbed the suit coat waiting on the stand.  “I’ll be back before dinner.  News conference at 4 so tune in.”

Steve rolled over grabbing the abandoned pillow holding it tightly and just breathed in the smell.

**

The day had been …empty. 

There wasn't a better way to describe it.  Almost everything remained the same.  He still made his morning run that 5 miles loop.  He still showered and dressed just the same.  Breakfast was still with the rest of the team. Clint still argued with him about what to make. Natasha tried to snag his cup when his attention was focused elsewhere.  Bruce had to be chivied out of his lab just like every other Monday. 

It just felt that after living in with chaos and color he was being forced back down in the washed out pastels.

Tony. 

A whirlwind of energy some morning when he'd be the deciding vote and stand there blatantly soliciting bribes with a smirk on his lips. Should he be in a mischievous mood it would be the engineer waiting until Steve was focused on Natasha before stealing his cup. 

On sleepy mornings, Tony would lean against Steve’s broad back murmuring unintelligible things.  Other morning when they had woken to kisses and caresses Tony would lean against his shoulder his eyes dark and his smile just that shade of wicked that would make Steve’s ears burn.

Steve was usually the one that left.  He hadn’t had to walk the familiar halls trying not to think about the missing piece. 

This was what Tony went through every single time.

He’d only seen the aftermath.  Never asked, that would be useless.  Tony was fine.  The engineer would be the first to agree that what they did was just as important as it was dangerous.  Steve needed to go and Tony would see him when he came home.

On the rare times when Steve could call, they always ended the same.

“I’ll be home before morning.” A phrase, a code.  All was well. The both said it to each other. 

But Tony lied.

He always heard the way that Pepper would tease Tony about his sudden productivity.  Sometimes Clint would be boasting about a new arrow design or Natasha admiring some upgrade to her bites.

And then there was Bruce’s worried frowns. They required no explanations. Those would be the times when Steve would swoop into where ever Tony had sequestered himself and carry the man off and up to the penthouse. Before the door to elevator would close Tony would be wrapped around him trusting that the super soldier would hold him. 

The genius’s mouth and hands were too busy tracing every inch in reach. It was passion and the hunger but it was also more.  It was in the way Tony’s eyes would follow every motion.  How those calloused hands turned gentle when they soothed the strains and bruises. On those times that the injuries were worse; Tony would be inspecting the stitches and the bandages.

Never once would the words _“I was worried”_ or _“I was concerned”_ pass the lips of that stubborn man. _“I missed you.”_  Is all he said, but Steve always heard the other words.

“You going to watch the press thing?” Clint slid over the back of the couch and onto the seat.

Steve put down the sketch book that he hadn’t really touched to glare at the archer.

“You could have walked around.”

But the other man just shrugged.  “Not so much fun that way.” The grin was just that shade of obnoxious and Steve couldn’t hold on to his annoyance.

“JARVIS what station is it on?”

The TV flickered on.  Seeing Tony already at the podium his gestures the same mix of enthusiastic and flamboyant Steve smiled broadly and sank back into the couch.  

“Oh, god that sickening, it’s like a pavlovian response.” Clint grumbled setting his feet on the coffee table. Since those feet were still in boots the super soldier flicked them door with a nudge of his own foot.

So what if seeing Tony made him feel better, that was his look out.  So what that when he watched the tamed and style hair and tailored suit all he could think of was tattered jeans and oil stained tanks.  And if maybe a little part of his mind though about the engineer wearing only that soft relaxed smile and nothing at all, no one had to know.

“Cap, don't ever tell me why you are smiling like that.  I don’t think my inner child could take it.”

He swallowed the smile on his lips that one was for Tony alone.

In silence they both listened as Tony Stark but charmed and insulted the press.  He’d be interested to see how the media wrote this one up.  It was never just or even mostly about the actual point of these things.  He’d heard Tony vent and fume about issues ignored and people over looked because the damn journalists were too wrapped up in “genius billionaire playboy philanthropist” latest scandal was or who he was seeing.

 “Shit.”

Steve didn’t need Clint sudden stillness or the muffled curse.

That glint of metal in the front of the crowd.  The way the crowd shifted.  The way the people of the podium reacted.  Tony turned as someone tackles him, forcing him down to the ground.

A pistol barked.

Screams crackled the speakers and the babble from the press too stupid to get out of the way.

A man struggling in the crowd as police forced him down.  Metal flashed in the sun.

The chaos and confusion and the cameras tried to keep focused on the stage even as they were pushed away.

His heart stopping, his breath held. 

Brilliant red scrawled across the olive skin. His eyes opened wide and shocked.

Steve stood his muscles trembling; need to be there to know and see overwhelming everything.

“Cap, Steve.”  Hands held him tugging him back.  A voice barked commands sharp and cold. 

He struggled tried to get them to let go.

When Tony moved Steve dropped to his knees.  Grace in every motion.  No sound but Steve could hear them words relayed.  And he stood snapping out orders as he stripped out of his coat.

No armor.  Tony didn’t have his armor.   

 “He’s calling for an ambulance.” Clint whispered his breath hot against Steve’s skin.  “He says he’s fine.  He’s not hit.”

His heart beat. Air moved in his lung.   Steve relaxed at the familiar and comforting lines, the side that most didn’t see without the barrier of the suit.  Confident, controlled and relentless with a side of the unexpected when those brown eyes narrowed on the camera crew that just kept filming.

Then they soften just a little and a sweet smile curled those lips.  He mouthed something at the camera before turning back.  

**

Steve culled around the figure in the bed, tracing every line. His fingers ghosted over the hand sized bruise where the security team had pushed him down.  He nuzzled at one on the back of the shoulder where the flesh had struck stone.

Looking over his lovers shoulder at the tablet still propped up against the lamp. Steve buried his head into the join of Tony’s neck.

_“Stay, I’ll be home before morning.”  Who is Tony Stark’s newest flame?_   That was plastered over the landing page of the news site.  Details on the shooting, those you had to look for.

 


End file.
